“Yes,” he replied.
“Where is the video?” Jameel asked with a tired sigh.
“I’ll upload it as soon as I get back to the apartment.”
“I’ll wait. I was finished anyway,” he muttered.
“I’m sorry, Jameel. I just need to find her,” he said.
“Send me the video and I’ll see what I can find,” Jameel promised.
“Thank you.”
Jameel shrugged. “You didn’t interrupt much,” he admitted.
Junayd signed off and relaxed in his seat. He fingered the flash drive Albert had given him. Worry gnawed at his stomach at the sudden idea that he might never see the woman again. He cursed the fact that Albert had interrupted them before he had a chance to find out the woman’s name—or see her face.
He closed his eyes, remembering the sensual feel of his moon dancer’s hand along his lower back. The limousine slowed to a stop outside of his apartment building. Yahya and Ziya scanned the sidewalk before opening the door of the limo and then the doors of the luxurious lobby.
The ride up to the penthouse apartment his family used when they were in New York seemed to take an unusually long time. He tapped the disk against his leg with impatience. Seconds later, he entered the apartment. He didn’t stop to shrug out of his coat.
Ten frustrating minutes later, he sat back in disbelief as he watched the video time-stamp play in a loop. Someone had erased her from the footage.
There was video showing Quest dragging the girl and striking her. Then, the video skipped to Quest lying on the ground and the arrival of his bodyguards, followed by the emergency medical staff and police. There was no video of him standing there with the woman.
It should have been visible on one of the dozen cameras, but the time stamp jumped from one number to another. Any part with the woman was gone.
Three
“You’re driving the poor guy crazy, Mid,” Junebug Rain commented as she swiveled back and forth in her computer chair.
“You’re going to get sick if you keep doing that,” Midnight absently responded.
Bugs laughed and completed another dizzying spin before she popped out of the chair. Midnight shook her head at her little sister’s antics. At twenty-three, she was barely a year older than Bugs, and yet she felt ancient compared to her hyper sister.
They were as different as night and day. Where Midnight had raven hair and a slender, tomboy build, Bugs was a miniature Venus with her voluptuous figure. Her strawberry blonde locks and light blue eyes came from their mother whereas Midnight had taken after her father—or so she assumed.
The sisters didn’t really know if they were biologically related. Their mother said she found them under a moonlit sky in Central Park, and she’d sworn they were left there by the fairies. Rainbow Rain had walked her own path until the day she died two years ago.
“Are you ignoring me?” Bugs asked, coming closer and bringing the blueprint of the bridge and all the local building code papers with her.
Midnight didn’t answer, which was an answer in itself. She was still lost in thought about the previous night. It had been a profitable outing. She had located three runaways—two of which had posted rewards for their recovery. The fact that she had also met a man who intrigued her hadnothingto do with her being distracted.
“Mid, talk to me.”
Midnight swallowed and looked up from where she was making breakfast for the two of them. The meal was simple, a cheese omelet with fresh veggies and toast. Midnight pushed the thought of the handsome royal doctor to the dark recesses of her mind. She had a lot to do before she caught a few hours of sleep.
“Did you get the reward money yet?” she asked.
“On Mandie, not the other one,” Bugs replied.
Midnight groaned. “I hope they don’t stiff us.”
Junebug’s lips curved in wry amusement. “I can always do an untraceable deduction from their bank account.”
“No.” Midnight shook her head. “If they pay the reward, they pay it. It was only a couple of hundred dollars, anyway,” she said with a jerk of her shoulder.
“Well, if you want to switch to finding missing dogs and cats, we could make a mint. I counted another ten new postings last night.”